Beneficiaries of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme Technology (OYESTECH) have lauded the administrative ingenuity of Governor Rauf Aregbesola in establishing the scheme which has impacted positively on their lives in the Information Communication Technology driven world.
They convicted that with the international training platforms exposed to, enormous opportunities abound in the ICT sector facilitated by the State Government of Osun have now given them sources of livelihood.
A beneficiary of the scheme, Mr Oseni Ibrahim said the opportunity given them by the Governor in sending them for training in Ghana and equipping them to remain self reliant.
His words “The Governor assisted us tremendously in giving us one of the best platforms to get trained and become ICT experts. We were sent to Ghana for rigorous training which we were satisfied with and returned to the state with bigger exposure that has now culminated in giving us means of livelihood.”
Another beneficiary who owns Bayotek Infocom Empowerment, Abdul-Hakeem Babatunde said the company was created after he graduated from the OYESTECH training in 2011 to empower Youths in line with the State Government’s Vision.
He said the company with two centres in the Federal Polytechnic Ede has been a platform for training of young men and women in the use of computers as well as its repairs with about 100 students benefitting.
Adeagbo Folakemi, who trained from Bayotek Infocom Empowerment in Desktop Publishing, Typesetting and Photocopy which has in a great deal helped in her academics providing a platform for her to be a facilitator for other beneficiaries.
Anthonia Ogundare who benefitted from OYESTECH and works with the RLG Adulawo Technology City, Ilesa who partnered the State Government of Osun on the scheme in 2013 explained that since opportuned to join the 150 selected participants for training in Ghana for further training, it has been a source of employment to her and more than 100 others at the company’s assembling plant in Ilesa.
OYESTECH was established as an Exit Programme of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme OYES in 2011 for interested OYES Cadets and other volunteers to provide skill acquisition training in phone repairs, electronics, computer assemblage, usage and entrepreneurship.
According to Mr Abiodun Fesobi, the OYESTECH Project Coordinator, about 10 comprehensively equipped training centres were established state wide in 2011 with 5,000 participants trained within 6 months.
Fesobi noted that the skill acquisition initiative to make beneficiaries employable and own their own businesses without recourse to government jobs.
“When the programme started with the 5,000 registered trainees, our technical partners, RLG Adulawo offered to employ some of them which they did with 50 of them gainfully engaged at the assemblage plant in Ilesa. Some of our graduates have also worked to train over 150 participants which is now a success.”
“In order to achieve its mission through investment, the government’s investment company, OSICOL embarked on selection of technical partner, RLG to deliver the training with the signing of the memorandum of understanding.”
The OYESTECH Project Coordinator expressed the conviction that
the training ideated by the Rauf Aregbesola administration has indeed affected lives positively which has continued to grow in making the state’s future generation ICT oriented and development abreast.
